Singing in my blogging shower about the awesomeness of Princess Mononoke

As an amateur movie blogger you don’t get a lot of benefits. I don’t earn a cent from all the hours of love and labour I put into this place. On the contrary I pay for it, since WordPress will allow pesky, ugly, questionable ads into my blog unless I continuously bribe them.

But I have a few advantages compared to the professional critic. I never feel any pressure. No deadline is haunting me and I’m free to write – or not to write about movies. You see – I pay all theatre tickets myself. There’s no embargo and there are no expectations. I set my own agenda.

Sometimes when I fall in love with a movie, all I want to do is to geek out. I want to hug it and kiss it verbally, without being particularly coherent or even pretending to do some kind of analysis. And that’s the best part about being an amateur.

So here I am: solo singing in my blogger shower booth and my voice gets louder and stronger every time I repeat the refrain:

I’m in looooove with Princess Mononooookeeeee because it’s awwwwwwsome!

What’s so greatBut OK, I’ll try to be a little bit more precise than that. Or at least give a couple of examples of what’sso great about Princess Mononoke.

I love it because how it’s so alien. It’s about the fight between man and different sorts of nature creatures, but as opposed to in most standard movies, there isn’t any clear villain. Just juxtaposed interests, colliding worlds that somehow need to learn to coexist, though it’s not clear if they ever will.

I love it because the female leading characters are capable of taking care of themselves and far from the typical princess in need of rescue that are abundant in animated movies from the western hemisphere.

I love it for the awe-inspiring animations. I love it for the atmosphere in the forest that makes Wonderland appear a bit unimaginative and dull. I love it for the majestic boar, the scary wolves and for the creatures that are beyond description.

And most of all: I’m in love with the kodamas – the forest spirits with the spinning heads. Can anyone tell me where I can adopt one? Please?

Oh and if you wonder why I don’t smack a 5/5 on this film since I love it so much anyway, the one little thing that holds me back is the issue I have with all anime movies. It stutters sometimes compared to the animation style that has become standard where I live. As a non-technician I assume it has something to do with a lower frame rate. But again: I assume it’s mostly a matter of getting used to it. Give me a couple of more viewings of this one and I’ve probably forgotten all about any objection I had initially.

Because I’m in looooove with Princess Mononooookeeeee and it’s awwwwwwsome!

13 Responses

Nice Jessica. Very nice review. I always love your personal touch to writing. 😉
I’m a big fan of Miyazaki and I’ve seen most but this one has eluded me. After you praise it so highly, I must remedy that at once.

YES!
I LOVE this film.
I love the female characters, the message, the animation and the Kodamas – It’s just stunning. 100 miles away from the helpless princesses and evil villains of Disney studios.
Nice write-up 🙂

Good stuff Jessica! You got me here, I’m not familiar with this film. Now usually I stay clear of anime. I just don’t have the personal taste for it. But your review has me interested. I may have to give it a look.

Probably my favourite film to come out of Studio Ghibli. Like you, I was totally wrapped up in the epic story, the female characters and those adorable forest spirits. My minor issue with the film was that in the middle it sort of lost its way. It still looked beautiful but the story just dragged. It’s an issue I have with a lot of Studio Ghibli films. It’s almost like they have to be a required length. It’s a tiny thing though. Tiny!

Hm… I didn’t quite feel that dragging thing in this case. But I Watch Another Ghibli film the other night, Tales from Earthsea. And that one certainly dragged! So long, so slow, I barely stayed awake. It was the same as with Poppy Hill to me. Ths one on the other hand kept me alert. Anyway: it’s just a minor thing you say, so I forgive you. 😉